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• to lead pupils through a planned sequence which progressively establishes key
  understandings;


• to promote reasoning, problem solving, evaluation and the formulation of
  hypotheses;


• to promote pupils’ thinking about the way they have learned.

The kind of question asked will depend on the reason for asking it. Questions are

often referred to as ‘open’ or ‘closed’.

Closed questions, which have one clear answer, are useful to check understanding

during explanations and in recap sessions. If you want to check recall, then you are

likely to ask a fairly closed question, for example ‘What is the grid reference for

Great Malvern?’ or ‘What do we call this type of text?’

On the other hand, if you want to help pupils develop higher-order thinking skills,

you will need to ask more open questions that allow pupils to give a variety of

acceptable responses. During class discussions and debriefings, it is useful to ask

open questions, for example ‘Which of these four sources were most useful in

helping with this enquiry?’, ‘Given all the conflicting arguments, where would you

build the new superstore?’, ‘What do you think might affect the size of the current

in this circuit?’

Questioning is sometimes used to bring a pupil’s attention back to the task in hand,

for example ‘What do you think about that, Peter?’ or ‘Do you agree?’

The practice of questioning

Questioning is an area characterised by a good deal of instinctive practice. The first

task will help you reflect on your use of questioning.

3 | Key Stage 3 National Strategy|Pedagogy and practice

Unit 7: Questioning

© Crown copyright 2004

DfES 0430-2004

Task 1

Questioning: a self-review 20 minutes

For one lesson you teach, write down, as far as possible, all questions that you

ask. To help capture them, you could make an audio recording of yourself or ask

another teacher to observe you. (You could do the same for this colleague in

return.)

Now analyse the questions you have asked, using a grid like the one below. Refer to

the list of the purposes of questioning above to help you with the fourth column.

Question posed Open Closed Evaluation of pupils’
responses
(impact on learning)

What do we call the process Helped all pupils remember
green plants use to make food? a key word

Explain the differences Helped all pupils to process
between the processes of knowledge.
photosynthesis and respiration.

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